


She's Back

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Isn't She Lovely [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Family, Other, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 03:29:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8649787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: She comes running, tears on her face. She looks tired and thin, and like she’s taken a beating, but she’s still his beautiful baby girl. Shuzo holds out his arms and Yuzu launches herself at him.





	

Masumi sometimes gets a feeling that she needs to do things, and usually it’s to prepare for something that’s about to happen. She’ll feel like spending a little extra time going over her notes, and the next day there’s a pop quiz, or she’ll walk on the opposite side of the street than she normally does, and avoid a reckless bike rider. Hokuto used to say she was psychic, but Masumi doesn’t believe in such things.

Today, Masumi feels like taking a walk past LDS. She hasn’t been there in weeks, since she quit the school, but she trusts her instincts and walks by. She’s just passing the building when she spots a familiar jacket in the distance…

Heart hammering in her chest, Masumi cups her hands around her mouth and yells, “HOKUTO?!”

He turns, and relief washes over his face. “Masumi! What the heck happened to everyone?”

Masumi runs at him and throws her arms around his shoulders. He staggers back, barely standing on his feet.

“What the heck?” Hokuto asks.

Masumi leans back and punches him in the gut. “YOU JERK!” She screams.

Hokuto blinks up at her, pained tears in his eyes. “Huh?!”

“You think you can vanish for months and then come back and ask where everyone is?!”

Hokuto gapes at her. “Months?! What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you remember what happened to you?” Masumi asks, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. “How did you get here?”

“I woke up in that alley back there!” Hokuto says, gesturing behind himself. “Last thing I remember I was dueling this girl who looked like Yuzu but used a completely different deck! What do you mean it’s been months?”

Masumi grabs his hand. “We have to go see your parents, they’re not going to believe this!”

Masumi drags Hokuto back to his house. When they see him, his mother screams and his father nearly passes out, and while they hug him and sob that they missed him, Masumi calls Shuzo.

“Hokuto’s back!” She cries into the phone, “Mister, you have to go to LDS, maybe Yuzu is back, too!”

 

Shuzo abandons everything. He runs as fast as he can to the tower that dominates the city, hardly able to process what he’s just been told. One missing child has returned, is it possible that more are on the way? Is it possible that Yuzu could be coming back?

Shuzo races into the entrance to the tower, and nearly runs smack into Himika Akaba. She looks shocked, shell shocked.

“Guards,” She says, turning to the men beside her, “Take this man upstairs, please. To the conference room.”

“Is she…?” Shuzo gasps, unable to breathe.

Himika Akaba doesn’t answer.

Shuzo is shaking, his knees are weak and in the elevator, he can hardly stand. He folds his hands under his chin, praying fervently, ‘Please, please, please God…’

The doors open and he dashes out, to the closed doors at the end of the hall. He flings them open and is greeted by the sight of dozens of people, including Yuya and Yusho, but for the moment, he doesn’t see her.

“Yuzu!” He screams, and finally, after months of waiting, he hears her voice.

“DAD!”

She comes running, tears on her face. She looks tired and thin, and like she’s taken a beating, but she’s still his beautiful baby girl. Shuzo holds out his arms and Yuzu launches herself at him. He catches her easily, and he buries his face in her hair.

“Yuzu, Yuzu my baby,” he breathes, barely able to speak through his tears. He missed her so much. He’s been dreaming of this moment for months, and now that it’s come he can hardly believe that it’s real. But it has to be, because in his dreams he’s never been able to feel her weight in his arms, or the shuddering of her chest as she sobs.

“I missed you, dad,” she cries, “I missed you so much.”

Shuzo leans back and kisses her cheeks, her forehead—he covers her beautiful face in kisses, something he hasn’t don’t since she was six, because she never let him. But she doesn’t push him away now.

“I’ll never let you go again,” Shuzo vows, hugging her tight once more. “Do you hear me? Do you…” he sobs. “I love you, Yuzu. Dear god I love you so much and I was so afraid I’d never be able to tell you again. I didn’t say it before…baby girl I love you so much.”

“I love you too, dad,” Yuzu sobs. “I know you love me, I know, and it made me strong.”

Shuzo closes his eyes. Every day that she was gone, he thought about all the things he never told her, because he always thought he’d have more time. Now is the time, because god forbid she vanishes again, she has to know why he never told her those things.

“Yuzu, I have to tell you something.”

Yuzu leans back and looks up at him. Her face is red with tears, and there’s a cut under her eye. She looks so much older than fourteen. Shuzo wonders what she’s seen. He touches her cheek.

“You may already know,” he says, “And I should have been honest about it sooner. I should have told you when you asked me about that bracelet. Yuzu, I adopted you.”

“Daddy…”

“Let me finish,” Shuzo pleads, his voice breaking. “If anything happens…you need to know. I found you one night, and I wasn’t ready to be a father but I looked at you and I just felt like we needed each other. I adopted you and I hid those damn papers and never told you, because in my mind you have always been mine. I don’t know where you came from that night but I thank god every day that you came to me, and I never wanted you to feel like you hadn’t always been my little girl. I was so afraid to tell you, because, well I was always afraid that you would want to find out. And that if you did, someone would try and take you from me. It was selfish, I should have let you be the one to make that decision, and I’m so sorry, baby girl.”

Yuzu shakes her head. “Dad…I found out where I came from.”

“You did?” Shuzo gasps.

“I did, and it was horrible,” she sobs. “He didn’t see me as me, not the way you do, and I told him he would never be my father, my father will always be you, and I never want to be anyone else’s daughter. And dad, I don’t know how but while I was there…I remembered the night you found me.”

“You did?” Shuzo says again, and he’s beyond surprise—he’s in actual shock. “But you were…you were only a few days old!”

“I know, but I remember it,” Yuzu says. “I remember that you kept me warm, and you held me for hours, and I remember you telling me that you would always be there for me.”

Shuzo closes his eyes. “I wish I had been,” he says quietly.

“You were,” Yuzu says, hugging him. “It was my memories of you that kept me strong. I knew I had to come back to you.”

Shuzo has quite forgotten that they’re standing in a room full of other people, and he doesn’t remember until someone slams into him and he turns around and sees Yoko.

“Where—?” She gasps, then Yuya screams.

“MOM!”

Yoko runs past Shuzo and drags Yuya and Yusho into a hug. Shuzo looks around and realizes that quite a few people are teary eyed, and he remembers that he has no idea where his daughter has been the last few months.

“What happened to you?!” Shuzo cries, leaning back and looking into Yuzu’s face. “Just where exactly have you been? And how did you find out about where you came from? Just what is going on?”

Yuzu laughs. “I’ll tell you, I promise, but first I want you to meet some people.” She takes his hand and leads him to a group of girls. “Dad, meet Serena, Rin, and Ruri. They’re…well, they’re kind of my sisters. And that’s Shun!” She points to the boy at the back of the group. “He’s Ruri’s brother, which makes him my brother, too.”

Shuzo stares at the kids. They look tired, and uncertain, and lost…and Shuzo breaks down in tears.

“Dad?” Yuzu asks.

Shuzo flings his arm out. “GROUP HUG!” He cries.

The girls collide with him and he does his best to drag the boy into the hug as well. Yuzu joins the fray, and Shuzo thinks this day is now tied for the best day of his life. He has Yuzu back, and somehow he’s ended up with three more daughters and a son. These children all look like they need a family, someone to love them and keep them safe. Yuzu may have been taken from him once, but Shuzo knows now that losing her is a pain he never wants to go through again, and he is prepared to fight anyone who wants to take her again. Now, he has four more kids to fight for, and to love.

“Dad, I didn’t even ask you yet,” Yuzu laughs, looking up at him with the biggest smile on her face. “Can they live with us?”

“You bet your sweet smile, they can!” Shuzo says.

The girls let out a cheer and hug each other, and even the boy (Shuzo can already tell he’s a tough customer) manages to smile. Shuzo pulls them all into another hug. He must be the luckiest dad in the universe.


End file.
